The present invention relates to a new and improved sheet material handling apparatus and method wherein sheet material articles are conveyed by a pair of conveyors. The invention may advantageously be used in association with a collating conveyor assembly which forms sheet material assemblages. As used herein, the term sheet material article refers to one or more sheets of material while the term sheet material assemblage refers to a plurality of sheets of material.
It has previously been suggested that a single gripper conveyor assembly could be used to convey sheet material assemblages from a collating conveyor to a receiving location. The collating conveyor has a single delivery station at which sheet material assemblages are sequentially engaged by grippers of the gripper conveyor assembly. The gripper conveyor assembly moves the sheet material assemblages from the delivery location to a receiving location where the grippers are opened to deposit the assemblages on a receiving conveyor. One example of such an apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,296 issued Jan. 26, 1988 and entitled "Sheet Material Handling Apparatus".
The collating conveyor disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. patent has a single delivery station. However, collating conveyors having a plurality of delivery stations are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,716 issued May 6, 1975 and entitled "Combined Newspaper Press and Stuffer, and Method of Forming Newspapers Therewith"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,974 issued July 12, 1977 and entitled "Collating System"; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,067 issued Oct. 16, 1984 and entitled "Method and Apparatus for Assembling Sheet Material Assemblages". Sheet material assemblages from the two delivery locations in these collating conveyors are transported to two receiving locations. Thus, a first series of assemblages from a first delivery location is transported to a first receiving location by a first conveyor and a second series of assemblages is transported to a second receiving location by a second conveyor. The provision of two separate receiving locations results in a duplication of apparatus and personnel at the two receiving locations.